The Louvre opens “Louvre Photo”, more than 300 images of the museum since 1839
· BehindLines newsroom
The Louvre opens its exhibition “Louvre Photo” on Wednesday 4 November, on view in the Napoléon mezzanine until 3 May 2027. According to the museum's press release, it brings together more than 300 photographs, from Louis-Jacques Daguerre's first view of the Louvre in 1839 to the present day.
The curators are Dominique de Font-Réaulx, a senior curator working with the museum's president-director, and Quentin Bajac, director of the Jeu de Paume. The scenography is by Juan-Felipe Alarcon. The release says the exhibition covers the area bounded by the palace walls and the gates of its gardens, including the Tuileries, and that the images are arranged around a thematic axis, with sequences on the museum as represented and on photographing at the Louvre.
The pictures come in particular from the Archives nationales, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the musée d'Orsay, the musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, as well as the Louvre's own holdings. The release names Daguerre, Charles Marville, the Ad. Braun company and Robert Polidori. According to the website W3sh, which published its article on 3 November, the route is thematic rather than chronological and also includes works by Édouard Baldus, Brassaï, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth and Juergen Teller.
On practical matters, the museum announces a 248-page catalogue, co-published with La Martinière, priced at 36.50 euros and released on 30 October. Visitors can send in their own Louvre photos with the hashtag #LouvrePhoto, and those selected will be shown. According to W3sh, admission is free for under-26s resident in the European Economic Area and booking a time slot is recommended. The exhibition carries the label of the Photography Bicentenary, whose programme runs from 1 September 2026 to 30 September 2027.
What remains unknown: the exact works on the walls, the expected attendance and the critical reception, since no review had appeared at the opening.